Quote:
Originally Posted by hat
Perhaps upzoning or height limits changes in some areas is a part of the solution. But there are plenty of other variables that make DC a really difficult city to enjoy. Walk around downtown and find places where people want to hang out. Many Europeans cities have the same height restrictions or have even lower structures throughout.
The street design of DC means crossing 6 or 4 lane boulevards often (waiting sometimes 99+ seconds). For people who live outside the city, this is great to drive. For people actually living in DC, it makes the experience really awful.
What Canary Wharf or La Defence has and DC does not is single lane streets and pedestrian-only thoroughfares. This creates both an atmosphere where mixed use buildings housing restaurants etc. are feasible, and places where people want to be.
DDOT has stats on crashes that involve pedestrians. 919 in 2012.
DC has a lot of space to fill and tons of potential. Until streets are designed for people it will be an unsafe and unpleasant place to live. |
Paris is full of much wider and busier boulevards and circles. Especially the CBD around the Opera. I'm just back from Paris. What makes Paris awesome is the architecture and the uses on the street - retail. The wide streets don't matter that much once that is in place.
The difference is residents. Raising height limits will allow for more apartment space downtown and more retail and vibrancy.
Also, I can think of far more unpleasant cities to live in. Dc is hardly as bad as you make out. It is one of a handful of proper cities in the USA ( most are not what I would consider proper cities) that I would live in. It's an important world city that has an actual center unlike most glorified office park cities here.